Changes

Loyalty and connection between the Zhou kings and their vassal states grew weaker and weaker, until around 771 BCE, the Zhou capital was sacked by either steppe nomads, or by an alliance of vassal states. [[King You of Zhou]] was killed in the attack, and his successor, [[King Ping of Zhou]], survived only by being spirited away to Chengzhou, in the east, and protected there by lords of two of his supposed vassal states. This arrangement, in which the Zhou remained nominally superior but was in fact entirely reliant on its nominal vassals - states which were otherwise for all intents and purposes independent - would characterize the Eastern Zhou for the remainder of the period. The most prominent of these independent states included the States of Qi in modern-day [[Shandong province]], Jin in [[Shanxi province|Shanxi]], Chu in the area of the [[Yangtze River]], and Qin in [[Shaanxi province|Shaanxi]].

Loyalty and connection between the Zhou kings and their vassal states grew weaker and weaker, until around 771 BCE, the Zhou capital was sacked by either steppe nomads, or by an alliance of vassal states. [[King You of Zhou]] was killed in the attack, and his successor, [[King Ping of Zhou]], survived only by being spirited away to Chengzhou, in the east, and protected there by lords of two of his supposed vassal states. This arrangement, in which the Zhou remained nominally superior but was in fact entirely reliant on its nominal vassals - states which were otherwise for all intents and purposes independent - would characterize the Eastern Zhou for the remainder of the period. The most prominent of these independent states included the States of Qi in modern-day [[Shandong province]], Jin in [[Shanxi province|Shanxi]], Chu in the area of the [[Yangtze River]], and Qin in [[Shaanxi province|Shaanxi]].

The Eastern Zhou saw a number of important technological and governmental developments, including the advent of the [[iron|Iron Age]] around 600 BCE, and the spread of [[soy]]bean cultivation from [[Manchuria]] into China proper around that same time. Beginning in 594 BCE, the [[State of Lu]] became the first to implement a system of collecting taxes directly, rather than having them paid to the local landlord.

The Eastern Zhou saw a number of important technological and governmental developments, including the advent of the [[iron|Iron Age]] around 600 BCE, and the spread of [[soy]]bean cultivation from [[Manchuria]] into [[China proper]] around that same time. Beginning in 594 BCE, the [[State of Lu]] became the first to implement a system of collecting taxes directly, rather than having them paid to the local landlord.

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